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Backblog 2

Just to recap and explain my absence over the past months, here are some souvenirs from my second consecutive shoot. We are making a big commercial that will run on Thanksgiving Day — if you watch American TV for even a minute on November 22, you’ll certainly see it. If not, I’ll post a copy later this month.

We filmed around New York City and Westchester in the days leading up to the arrival of Hurricane Sandy. In fact, we wrapped the evening the storm finally arrived on our shores.

Fall is here.

Our first location. This seems like ages ago, an idyllic Fall day in Brooklyn. Now all of these leaves have been blown away by the hurricane. Hopefully the house is still standing.

Jeff shoots in Ocean Park.

My director Jeff and I have made commercials together for over 20 years. We’ve shot in New York, California, Chicago, and Rome and the results are always spectacular. He’s one of my favorite creative collaborators and I can’t wait to see his feature film, scheduled to come out next year.

One of the three complete Thanksgiving dinners we prepared and shot.

We shot three scenes with large, extended, real families making and sharing Turkey Day. The food styling was extraordinary and cornucopian.

The crew films in a nut store on Brooklyn’s Atlantic Ave

We used real stores, streets, yards and homes as our locations.

Never mind the Bollexs. My director’s 16 mm. cammeras.

Jeff shot with several different cameras, film and digital: 35 mm., a Canon 5D, a Canon C300, and his personal collection of Bolexs.

A glass-blowing forge

We filmed a master craftsman as she and her team blew extraordinary glass vases.

Relics of the Industrial Age.

We shot a factory scene in a giant warehouse full of old machines from New York’s dwindling manufacturing industry.

This isn’t a scene from “Armageddon” or “Independence Day”. It’s just the first arrival of Sandy on our shores.

On our final Day, we shot high atop the World Trade Center where crews were battening down their gear as the wind picked up. Then we hired a ferry to drive us back and forth past the Statue of Liberty as the sky grew menacing.

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11Comments

I had no idea your creativity took you in this direction, Danny! I’ll certainly be watching for your commercial so I can say, “hey I know the fellow who made this one!”
Love the photos here, by the way.

I knew you did “something in advertising” because you mentioned it in your first book, but I didn’t know what or that you continued in it. What a neat little peak into “the other Danny”!! I will definitely be watching the parade Thanksgiving morning and can’t wait to see your handiwork! Thanks for sharing it!